It’s time for the final financial disclosure before the election, which is on August 6. This one is the pre-general report and runs from July 1, 2020 through July 27, 2020. I used the mail to get mine in and it didn’t make it by the deadline, which was July 30, 2020. It was picked up from my mailbox on July 29 in the early afternoon and arrived at the Election Commission at 1:30 p.m. today, July 31.

I really don’t like being late and that includes with things like this. Other candidates have been late in getting their reports in other periods with, seemingly, no repercussions. Plus, it was a short turnaround from close of the period to the deadline. Still, no excuse. I could’ve driven the form downtown or gone to the post office and paid for next day delivery. I opted not to do that and that’s all on me. I apologize.

You can see my previous posts about financial contributions here, here, here, and here. You can also go see the documents I’ve filed at the Election Commission website.

My Donations:

  • 7/1 – $500 from me
  • 7/6 – $500 from me
  • 7/7 – $50 from a nice couple who mailed me a check out of the blue. I’m not going to put their names in here. They’re disclosed on the form, as required, if you absolutely must know.

Total – $1050

My In-Kind Contributions:

Some of the spending I did for this report I just ended up paying for, rather than making a contribution to my campaign and having the money come from there. As with some of the expenditures last month, I used my personal PayPal account for the Facebook ads. That’s why I’m counting them as in-kind contributions

  • 7/21/20 – Facebook Ads – $37.69
  • 6/5/20 – Advertisement with Knoxville Focus – $335.88

Also, interesting side note. The card from the account I use for the campaign got compromised and I found one fraudulent charge on there. Evidently there were other attempts at charges that First Horizon blocked. I worked through the fraud process and had to get a new card. That’s the reason these Knoxville Focus charges are listed as in-kind contributions. I had to give them one of my personal cards for the weekly charges while I was waiting for the new campaign account card.

Total – $373.57

My Expenditures:

The below items came from campaign funds.

  • 7/2 – postage – $275
  • 7/1-8 – Knoxville Focus advertising – 223.92
  • 7/6 – Hustle app – $224.80

Total – $723.72

I didn’t have any outstanding obligations or loans.

The Summary page shows that I ended the last period with $419.31 on hand. I had contributions of $1050 and disbursements of $723.72 and that leaves me with $745.59 balance on hand. My in-kind contributions were $373.57.

As I’ve done before, I’ll add a little sunshine to the race by doing a summary of my opponent’s Financial Disclosure. At this point, there’s nothing surprising. It’s much of the same.

My general election opponent is Kyle Ward, who won the Republican primary on March 3, 2020. During the pre-general period, Mr. Ward raised $9,100 and spent almost $7800. He has about $8000 balance on hand with a week to go in the race. His loan of $214 is still outstanding. This brings his total fundraising in the primary and general elections to over $47,000. He’s spent almost all of that, except, of course, the $8,000 balance on hand that he had as of July 27.

On the other hand, I’ve donated $4,500 to myself, none of which was done as a loan. I’ve also spent money on things from other than my campaign account and I’ve been calling those in-kind contributions. So, another $1,700 or so from the Frommeyers in that way. That brings the total amount I’ve spent on this campaign to be about $6,200.

I’ll also update here the totals for the big donations taken by my opponent. Add another 5 donations of $1,000 or more this period (including two donations which maxed out at $1,600) and that brings the total to 17 big money donations during the course of the primary and general elections.

Or put it another way, there are about 14 individual donors (some of the big money donors gave twice) who account for $18,950 dollars in donations to my opponents campaign. Or 40% of the $47,000 my opponent raised came from only 14 people.

If that bothers you like it bothers me, I hope you’ll consider giving me your vote on August 6. Early voting runs through August 1.

If there is anything I can do to help in these uncertain times, don’t hesitate to reach out via social media, email or give me a call – (865) 850-1894.